On-off snap action water and energy saving valve attachment for sink spout

ABSTRACT

An attachment for the spout of a sink fixture permits the stream of mixed hot and cold water to be readily turned all the way on and off, by simple flipping of a snap-action lever control, without it being necessary to adjust the hot or cold faucets. The flipping is non-critical and does not require any fiddling. The desired temperature and rate of flow are maintained, after having been initially achieved, during subsequent turnings on and off of the stream. The attachment is designed to be screwed into place between the spout and its matching non-splash aereator, normally screwed directly to the spout.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation-in-part patent application of Ser. No. 948,788,filed Oct. 5, 1978 and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,181,987.

SUMMARY

Recent events in the field of energy sources and in the field of theenvironment have made the need to conserve energy and to conservepotable water, so that both can reach farther, more evident.

One source of unnecessary loss of energy and water is the domestic sink,at which the stream of mixed hot and cold water is often kept running,for convenience of the user, even at moments when not actually needed.This occurs, for example, when shaving or when washing dishes andrinsing them individually.

The reason the user does not turn the water on and off during theshaving or dishwashing operation is that it is simply too much bother toadjust the hot and cold water faucets. The action required is notsimple, like the flicking on and off of a wall electric light switch,but is critical in the sense that, each time the adjustment is made, theuser must find the exact setting by watching the stream, testing itstemperature, and setting the valves accordingly.

Since both a hot and cold valve are involved, there are two degrees offreedom, and two critical adjustments are required.

Even in the case of a modern single-handle mixer valve sink, there arestill two degrees of freedom, for the handle must be moved in onedirection to control the volume of the stream and in a perpendiculardirection to control the temperature of the stream.

It is an object of the invention to permit the user to turn the readymixed stream of water on or off without the fiddling with faucetsrequired to adjust in accord with two degrees of freedom, but, instead,to turn the stream on or off with a snap action, as easily as the userwould snap a wall light switch on or off. The small effort required ofthe herein disclosed attachment encourages its use to save heat andwater.

The magnitude of the saving will be appreciated when it is noted that aperson washing and rinsing an assortment of dishes from a family mealwill need a brief flow of water perhaps 20 to 50 times. A person shavingwill, while lathering up and rinsing the safety razor, need a brief flowof water perhaps a dozen times.

Accordingly, the invention utilizes an attachment for a sink spouthaving a snap-action valve which is stable in its full on or full offpositions and which will not hold a position in between.

This snap action valve is provided with a flip lever, of suchconfiguration as to readily permit easy flipping thereof, to change thesetting of the snap action valve from full on to full off and viceversa.

Furthermore the attachment is provided, on its upper and lower ends,with oppositely facing male and female threaded portions, matched to fitthe thread on the nozzle end of the spout. This enables the customarynon-splash aereator, mounted on the end of the spout, to be unscrewed.The attachment is then screwed onto the nozzle end of the bare spout andthe aereator is, in turn, screwed onto the attachment. Thus, it is notnecessary to replace a previously present aereator.

THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the attachment described herein,installed between the spout and the aerator of a sink plumbing fixture.

FIG. 2 is a partially exploded cross sectional view of a portion of thespout, the attachment and the aerator. The longitudinal axis of theadapter lies in the plane of the view.

FIG. 3 is another partially exploded view, taken on a plane parallel tothe longitudinal axis of the adapter and at right angle to the view ofFIG. 2.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are two diagrams showing the toggle forces present whenthe snap action valve is respectively shut and open.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a similar cross-sectional view as in FIG. 6 but turned ninetydegrees.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of another embodiment ofthe cam means to upset the valve means.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The perspective view of FIG. 1 pictures a conventional sink fixture 10with the attachment 12 installed.

The fixture includes hot and cold faucets 14 and 16, a spout 18 and anon-splash aereator 20.

It will be noted that the attachment 12 is installed between the spout18 and the non-splash aereator 20.

The attachment 12 includes a snap action on and off valve, which iscontrolled by flip lever 22.

The non-splash aereator 20 would initially be screwed on to the spout18, by means of matching male and female threads 24m and 24f (seen inFIG. 2) on the spout 18 and the non-splash aereator 20, respectively.

In order to add the attachment 12, to the original fixture, thenon-splash aereator 20 had been unscrewed from the spout 18 and theattachment has been screwed on instead, matching the male and femalethreads 24m and 25f to each other. Then the non-splash aereator 20 hadbeen screwed onto the attachment 12, matching the male and femalethreads 25m and 24f to each other.

In order to make this possible, all the threads have the same nominaldiameter and pitch. In the United States, the standard pitch in thisapplication is always 27 threads to the inch, while the common nominaldiameter is 55/64 of an inch, although 12, 13 and 15 sixteenths of aninch are also seen from time to time.

The attachment 12 includes a casing 30 having an upper chamber 32, alower chamber 34 and a partial partition therebetween, said partitiondefining a conical valve seat 36. A ball 38 is adapted to be seatedagainst the conical valve seat 36, thereby cutting off communicationbetween upper chamber 32 and lower chamber 34.

Ball 38 is normally held on conical valve seat 36 by means of spring 40,but can be lifted off by the nose of hairpin cam 42, mounted on shaft44. The shaft 44 can be turned through an angle of about 60 degrees bymeans of flip lever 22 (shown in both its real "on" and in its phanton"off" position in FIG. 2). The flip lever 22 has two arms 22a and 22b,which respectively extend from the flip lever 22 to the opposite ends ofshaft 44, so that when flip lever 22 is raised for "off" or lowered for"on", the shaft 44 is correspondingly rotated.

In FIG. 2 the hairpin cam 42 is shown in its "on" position, in which thenose of the hairpin cam 42 lifts the ball off its conical valve seat 36,whereby water can flow downwardly through the attachment 12. The "off"position, in which the nose of hairpin cam 42 is moved away from ball38, thereby permitting the ball 38 to close with its conical valve seat36 and cut off the flow of water through attachment 12, is shown inphantom lines.

The construction of the hairpin cam 42 is seen in FIG. 3. The hairpincam is a round rod, bent double, as shown. The rod is bent double in apress, using swaging dies which will coin the legs to form shoulders 43.

The shaft 44 has, in its center, a longitudinal slot with rounded ends.After the shaft 44 is inserted into position, as seen in FIG. 3, thehairpin cam 42 is forced into the slot, thereby springing the two legsof hairpin cam 42 together. However, as the hairpin cam 42 reaches itsfinal position with respect to shaft 44, the legs spring out and theshoulders 43 bear against the shaft 44, thereby locking the hairpin cam42 in position on shaft 44.

Water is prevented from leaking out of lower chamber 34, along shaft 44,by means of elastomeric O-rings 46 and 48. These O-rings provide apressure tight seal between the shaft 44 and casing 30. It is to benoted that an O-ring seal does not depend on the squeezing of anoversize ring inside the recess in which it is seated. Instead, each ofthe O-rings 46 and 48 is made to be rather pliable and to lightly touchthe walls of the recess and the shaft 44. When water pressure is felt byan O-ring, the O-ring wanders slightly along the shaft towards the lowpressure side, and then squashes slightly against the shoulder whichstops further wander. The squashing under the influence of waterpressure causes the ring to bear harder on either side of a low pressuregap, with a force that depends on the water pressure. Thus, an O-ring isself-adjusting to a considerable degree of variations in sizes of partsor pressures involved.

The O-rings 46 and 48 are slid onto shaft 44 during assembly of shaft 44with casing 30, before the hairpin cam 42 is inserted.

The reason the ball 38 and hairpin cam 42 act in snap fashion tocompletely open or close the fluid passage through the attachment 12 isreadily seen in FIGS. 4 and 5.

In FIG. 4 the ball 38 is seated and the spring force A from spring 40 isvertically downward. This vertical spring force A is distributed evenlyaround the conical ring valve seat 36, as shown by arrows B and C. Ifthe nose of cam 42 attempts to lift ball 38, it is obvious that the ballwill resist. Thus, the attachment stays in its "off" position, if leftalone.

In FIG. 5 the ball 38 is shown lifted into the "on" position. Theresulting spring force D is larger, because the spring 40 is compressedand, further, the spring force D is no longer vertical because thespring 40 has been distorted sidewise, as can be seen in FIG. 2. Thespring force D is resolved to only two forces, E and F, because the ballis now in two-point contact with the nose of the hairpin cam 42 and withone point of the conical valve seat 36. It is apparent from FIG. 5 that,if the hairpin cam 42 attempts to get out from under the ball 38, thatthe ball 38 will resist such an attempt. Thus, the attachment will stayin its "on" position if left alone.

The manufacture of the attachment 12 presents no great problems. Afterthe holes for the shaft 44 are molded or drilled, the spaces for theO-rings 46 and 48 are simultaneously formed in a drill press or verticalspindle milling machine with a recessing tool, as will be apparent to amachinist. The arms 22a and 22b of flip lever 22 are coined with keyedrecesses to fit the keyed ends of shaft 44. The assembly of said arms tothe shaft is in a press. The press removes a slight bend in flip lever22, which bend permitted arms 22a and 22b to be slipped and snapped overthe ends of shaft 44.

If the ball 44 is hard metal, the casing 30 is preferably softer, and ismade of a material such as injection molded nylon. If the casing is hardmetal, the ball is preferably a firm polymeric material.

It should be noted that the attachment is well adapted for easy use. Theflip lever 22 can be flipped up and down as easily as can the standardwall switch. Practically no thought need be given, and the user will dothe flipping in a semi-automatic manner while his thought will beoccupied with more important things. The particular up-down motion ofthe flip lever 20 facilitates this, because of the ninemonic connectionbetween flipping the lever down to cause the water to cascade down andflipping the lever up to cause the water to shut off, since the upwardflip goes against the motion of the water. Thus, the motions required ofthe user are natural, and require no training.

If desired, limit-of-motion stops can be provided in attachment 12 toprevent flip lever 22 from abutting against the chrome finish of theattachment 12 or the aereator 20. Such stops have not been illustratedin the drawing in order to keep the drawings simple and because thestops are a perfecting feature, not needed for satisfactory operation.As shown in FIG. 2, in the "on" position, there is an inherent internalstop by virtue of the fact that the nose of hairpin cam 42 rests on theconical valve seat 36. An internal stop could also be provided, ifdesired, which would prevent the nose of hairpin cam 42 from departingfar enough from the surface of ball 38, in its seated position, topermit flip lever 22 to abutt against the attachment 12.

Attention is now directed to FIGS. 6 and 7 for disclosure of yet anotherembodiment of the present invention. With regard thereto, it is pointedout that a casing 30A fulfills essentially the same function as thecasing 30 described heretofore. However, in the present embodimentrather than having the casing in possession of threads for connection toa spout, for instance, the casing 30A has an upwardly facing portionpositioned concentrically and internally of an annular swivel adapter50. The upper part of the adapter has dual thread means 51 constructedwith screw threads externally so that it comprises male thread portionsand also has screw threads internally so that it may embrace a malematable connector means on a faucet. It will also be noted thatinternally of said dual thread means is a shim washer 52 which is usedfor its normal function. Mounted thereabove is a washer 53 in order toinsure adequate tight water connection all in a conventional manner.

The swivel adapter 50 is designed to insure that the casing 30A is in aconveniently facing direction so that the assembly of the presentembodiment may be screwed onto the spout as heretofore, but then may beadjusted so that the device is in a selected convenient position.Without the swivel adapter 50 it is necessary that the threaded portionsboth on the device and on the faucet be in a sufficiently matingposition so that as the device is rotably tightened to the spout, theposition that is most desirable is automatically presented. However, thepositioning of the threads may not always be machined to such a degreeof tolerance and with washer wear, for instance, the device may bedifficult to position in a convenient manner.

As stated in the above the casing 30A is provided with an upstandingportion 54 that has a suitable external cylindrical surface and suitablediameter whereby it fits relatively snugly internally of the swiveladapter 50. The casing 30A is provided with a radially outwardly facingannular slot 55. A threaded radially positioned bore 56 is supplied inthe swivel adapter 50. The bore 56 and slot 55 are positioned wherebythey are in operative association. Radially inwardly extending setscrews 57 are conventially used to secure the casing 30A in a fixedposition relative to the swivel adapter 50 when the assembly of thepresent invention has been screwed onto the faucet and the rotatableadjustment in connection therewith has been completed.

Internally of the device it will be seen that a ball valve 38A ispositioned heretofore with regard to the previously discussedembodiments. It is maintained against the valve seat 36A by means ofspring 40A whereby the valve is normally urged into a closed position.

Of considerable interest to the present embodiment and the discussion inconnection therewith is that the seat 36A is supplied with at least onegroove 58 by means of which a slight leak is deliberately provided evenwhen the valve is closed but the faucet is an on condition. This slightdrip does not permit the flow of a considerable quantity of water whenthe valve is in the closed position but does signal that the valves ofthe faucet are in an open position so that the device of the presentinvention is not used to turn the supply of water off in a permanentmanner. This novel feature of a drip arrangement as a signal is believedto be useful in acting as a remainder. The leak is preferably aprogression of distinct drips whereby the leak is signalled as a drumbeat. Of course, the leak may be a tiny thin jet stream. The amount ofleak is dependent upon the pressure available in the faucet. The groove58 may be deliberately cut into the valve seat or it may be made bydimpling the seat with a striking tool. On the other hand the ball 38Amay be suitably scored to provide the leak.

Horizontally with respect to the casing 30A there is supplied again ashaft 44A having somewhat of a different arrangement for upsetting theball 38A from its seat 36A. In connection therewith, special attentionis directed to FIG. 6 from which it will be seen that shaft 44A is of asolid and single piece construction having suitable portions machinedtherefrom in order to provide the resultant as hereinafter described.Again, in order to obtain a seal from the chambers aforementioned withregard to the previously discussed embodiments, annular grooves 60 arepositioned at each side of the said chambers. These grooves have O-rings61 positioned therein for accomplishing a conventional expected purpose.

In the present arrangement, radial bores 62 are provided at each endportion of projecting portions of shaft 44A. End portions of U-shapedhandle 22A are suitably affixed through the bores 62 in an appropriateand conventional manner. The handle 22A as stated possesses a U-shapedconfiguration as mentioned in the previously mentioned embodiment buthas at each of the legs an end portion that is rounded so that the endsfit directly and with a friction fit or the like into the bores. FIG. 6is seen to be lacking the attachment of the handle. This has been doneto achieve clarity.

The shaft 44A has on one peripheral surface centrally located thereon acam portion 64 which is utilized to upset ball 38A. With regard thereto,attention is directed to FIG. 7 wherein the cam 64 is shown to be incross section and is seen to have a triangular configuration. In otherwords, it will be seen that shaft 44A has been suitably milled to removea chord portion from each side to provide the triangular cam 64. Theappex portion 65 thereof is designed to abut against the underside ofball 38A when shaft 44A is rotated by means of deflecting handle 22A ina downward direction. Of course, it will be appreciated that themechanism of operation may be mounted whereby the handle may beoperative when it is moved in the upward direction. FIG. 7 describes thearrangement wherein the ball 38A is seated in what would normally be anat rest condition.

In the present embodiment, it will be noted that casing 30A is suppliedwith downwardly depending annular skirt 66 which has an internal femalethread adapted and constructed to accept a conventional aerator washer20 having male threads at one end portion for affixing it to the casing30A.

It will be appreciated that additional modifications and embodiments arewell within the purview of the instant invention. For instance, it iscontemplated that the device may, in fact, be constructed to have abuilt-in aerator rather than utilizing an aerator that must be attached.

It has also been found useful to provide a plurality of horizontal borescommunicating with the chamber 34 which is located below the valvestructure. The bores comprise openings communicating between chamber 34and the ambient. When an aerator washer is utilized, it is sometimesoverwhelmed by the surge of water attempting to pass therethrough whenthe ball 38A is opened. The openings supply desirable relief means.

While in the foregoing the valve means is a ball, it is contemplatedthat the valve may be any freely movable plug means that may have a coneconfiguration or may be a tappet or the like.

Attention is now directed to FIG. 8 by which depicts another embodimentin the means for lifting the ball 38A from its seat. It will be notedthat shaft 44A possesses a cam 64B which has an upwardly facing majorland shown as a chord in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 8 and a minorland. In the FIG. 7 it will have been seen that the lands formed anisosceles triangle with an acute angle therebetween. In the embodimentunder consideration the major and minor lands form a right angletherebetween.

What is claimed is:
 1. An attachment for use between a sink spout andthe non-splash aerator for said spout, said attachment comprising:acasing having a generally longitudinal axis; means, including apassageway along said longitudinal axis, for operatively connecting saidsink spout to said non-splash aerator; a partial partition across saidpassageway dividing said passageway into a first chamber and a secondchamber; the side of said partition closer to said spout defining avalve seat; valve means in said first chamber adapted to seat againstsaid valve seat; spring means for normally biasing said valve meansagainst said valve seat, whereby, when said valve means is seated, thesaid passageway is interrupted and water cannot flow from said spout tosaid aerator; snap action means for lifting said valve means from saidvalve seat, whereby, when said valve means is lifted, water can flowthrough said passageway from said spout to said aerator; said snapaction means comprises a horizontally positioned shaft through saidcasing positioned below said valve seat; said shaft having a cam surfacelocated substantially centrally and having an operating surface inabutment with a bottom portion of the valve means whereby said valvemeans may be upset from said valve seat when in one mode and said shafthaving a cam surface that permits the valve means to reside in saidvalve seat in another operative mode.
 2. The attachment of claim 1 inwhich said casing is attached to an annular connecting means;saidannular connecting means being disposed between said casing and an endof said sink spout; said casing and said annular connecting meanscapable of relative rotation and having means to prevent relativerotation.
 3. The attachment of claim 1 in which the valve means and thevalve seat is provided with means to permit leakage even when said valvemeans is seated in said valve seat.
 4. The attachment of claim 1 inwhich the valve means is a ball.